T14s Saga. Or: "How to ruin some perfecty good SAKs/MTs"

[T14]

Greetings and salutations.

This thread is meant as a way for me to keep my mod project related thought/plans/experiments & experience organized.
Hopefully my amateurish forays into modding will provide a modicum of entertainment and serve as a cautionary tale of what NOT to do when diving straight into this noble craft without the skillset to back it up.

A partial list of the mods featured in the next couple of weeks and months is:

• Mechanic Jr + Metal file layer from swisschamp and 84mm tinker parts
• 91mm apprentice with plus scales
• 84mm opener layer experiments
• Playing around with scales when liners are peened without bushings
• LM style CS/PS/ES set with some custom scale tool configurations

Mod #1: Bladeless "cybertraveller lite"

My only mod so far is a mashup of a traveller lite (scales, liners, LED light), CT29 (Bit driver and liners) &
Swisschamp (mag glass layer and front liner) to create a bladeless "cybertraveller lite".

The motivation was to get all the odd-yet-nifty SAK features (and plastics) gathered in a single travel-friendly package.
This will be a baseline companion to other mission specific SAKs.
And kind of a swisscard on steroids in that it pairs up well with any Alox SAK.

Attached is a pic of the components laid out before I discovered that the modern LED backspring will not play nice with the old Mag glass.
The next post will detail how I solved the issue.

The Next post will follow shortly.
-Tom

[T14]

Cybertraveller lite cont'd: The LED and grey mag glas conundrum.

There is no snap at all when trying to replace an inline phillips with the grey cased mag glass.
So the solution is to reprofile the inline phillips end of the old mag glass backspring to match the LED backspring shape.
I did this with hand files and sand paper
I Hope Santa will add some sanding bench tools to my Xmas stocking this year.
Anyways. The Attached pic shows the problem and the solution:
The LED backspring is on top and the Mag glass backspring is on the bottom. Note the differences in dimension and shape at either end. The metal to be removed is marked in black sharpie.

The next post will show an assembly pic.

[T14]

Cybertraveller lite cont'd: assembly and peening.

I had never tried peening before, but in an unusual bout of beginners luck it went smooth as butter.
In my feverish enthusiasm i forgot to take pics before slapping the traveller scales on it. 
But it was easy enough that I should be able to tackle colored alox scales before too long.

Edit: attached below is a progress shot mid assembly:
-Tom

[T14]

Cybertraveller lite cont'd: the end result.

The finished product is as follows. A fine companion to my alox voyageur or alox bantam 


Once donors arrive I shall tackle the 91mm apprentice plus or the Mechanic Junior project.
In either case, I will use cap lifters instead of combo tools. (common part, more robust, more useful screwdriver size, and  "feels right" as a complement to backspring phillips)

Thank you for your time, and stay tuned.
-Tom

[jcs0001]

Tom:

Nice job.  I am continually amazed by people who can do so much with so little tooling.  I have lots of tooling and always crave more so feel very fortunate when I see posts like this.

Keep up the great work.

John.

[T14]

Cheers John:
As an apartment dweller with zero outdoor space I often have to resort to low-noise solutions. Most often this means hand tools.
But as a dedicated scale modeller my amount of hand tools number in the hundreds 

For my sak mod my tool list was:

4 oz ball and pein hammer
Tiny 300g anvil
Needle metal files.
Various grit sand paper.
Modelling razor saws
Beater blade for gentle prying

But using metal files to reshape spring steel is SLOOW. With a benctop grinder I could have done in minutes what I did in hours with hand tools.
My kingdom for a humble shed 
-T


Oh and bonus round: ""Mod" #Zero: custom SOG powerlock loadout
So trivial it is not even a mod. An "awlmost" bladeless loadout for my only big MT. This is a generalist companion to mission specific tools.

[jaya_man]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AimlessWanderer]

Some nice ideas coming to fruition here 

[T14]

Cheers Gents.

I have taken apart less than 10 donor SAKs, and I am already up to my eyballs in opener layer parts. Howto make use of this chaff?

This idea would be simplest to execute in 84mm with access to the recruit type full body scales... but the layout should be simple to turn into a single layer knife with the addition of a suitable spacer next to the blade pivot. Pic related.

[windson]

Cheers Gents.

I have taken apart less than 10 donor SAKs, and I am already up to my eyballs in opener layer parts. Howto make use of this chaff?

This idea would be simplest to execute in 84mm with access to the recruit type full body scales... but the layout should be simple to turn into a single layer knife with the addition of a suitable spacer next to the blade pivot. Pic related.

Interesting and out-of-the-box mods!  That one-layer with the three tools would certainly be a winner.

[Poncho65]

Already some.awesome.stuff in this thread Tom  Can't wait to see what awaits us in your modding adventures

[hiraethus]

Already some.awesome.stuff in this thread Tom  Can't wait to see what awaits us in your modding adventures

What the rebar with a hat said.  Keep it coming.

[T14]

Cheers folks.

I'm in the process of gathering parts atm.

• For my LM style ES/CS/PS project, parts should be en route from the US starting this week. As customs on my end tends to be slow in processing incoming parcels total transit time will be about a month.
• I've small tinkers en route from slovakia with an ETA of a week or two.
• I've got extra backspring screwdrivers in the form of 91 mm tinkers en route from the US as well.
• 3 swisscards and an explorer en route from the UK
• An old swisschamp supposedly en route from within Denmark, But I might have been scammed by the seller. Time will tell 
• I have yet to locate a source of 2.2 mm brass pins.

I'll start producing stuff once my donors start trickling in 
-Tom

[Don Pablo]

I love the mods, I don't consider them a waste of good tools.   
I must do something mod-dy one day...


By the way,
Slovakia? Did you order from ebay?
Sorry for the strange question, got a rambler en-route from slovakia as well, bought on euro-knife and shipped via EMS(whats that, I wonder?) last wednesday.

[Poncho65]

Already some.awesome.stuff in this thread Tom  Can't wait to see what awaits us in your modding adventures

What the rebar with a hat said.  Keep it coming.

That's Mr. 300 (Mr. SuperTool 300) and you almost made him cry

 

[Poncho65]

Cheers folks.

I'm in the process of gathering parts atm.

• For my LM style ES/CS/PS project, parts should be en route from the US starting this week. As customs on my end tends to be slow in processing incoming parcels total transit time will be about a month.
• I've small tinkers en route from slovakia with an ETA of a week or two.
• I've got extra backspring screwdrivers in the form of 91 mm tinkers en route from the US as well.
• 3 swisscards and an explorer en route from the UK
• An old swisschamp supposedly en route from within Denmark, But I might have been scammed by the seller. Time will tell 
• I have yet to locate a source of 2.2 mm brass pins.

I'll start producing stuff once my donors start trickling in 
-Tom

Can't wait for you either Tom It is exciting thinking about taking them apart and making a SAK of my own liking Just a bit nervewracking at the same time

[Don Pablo]

I wonder what he will do with the swisscards. 

[Poncho65]

I wonder what he will do with the swisscards. 

No telling but it is very exciting to think of all the possibilities

[T14]

My swisscard adventure will consist of me cramming unusually shaped objects into various swisscard cavities and asking myself if it makes me happy   

[Poncho65]

My swisscard adventure will consist of me cramming unusually shaped objects into various swisscard cavities and asking myself if it makes me happy   

  Seems reasonable

 

[T14]

By the way,
Slovakia? Did you order from ebay?
Sorry for the strange question, got a rambler en-route from slovakia as well, bought on euro-knife and shipped via EMS(whats that, I wonder?) last wednesday.

euroknife yup

[Don Pablo]

Ok, Thank you!
I'll tell you when my package arrives, to get an idea of shipping times.

[Don Pablo]

My order from euro-knife arrived today, took 12 days. 

[T14]

Update:

• Most parts have arrived, and more are under way. I have ordered 5 meters of 2.2mm brass pin stock, so I should become well equipped to give my SAK parts a good hammering as soon as time permits. In addition to the opener layer experiments, I also plan to make a scientist, a red alox bantam, and a 91mm 3 layer woodworker SAK consisting of blades, saw, file, reamer and chisel.
• I am in the midst of my end-of-semester exam schedule, so the next flurry of activity will have to wait until the end of the month. I have been able to make progress on the LM style ES/PS/CS project and am experimenting with scale tool configurations atm. I hear good things about the micra drivers, so I will try to get one and play around with it's innards to see if they transplant well. The trio is intended to be carried as a set, so redundancy minimation is a target here.
• The ES has been equipped with a knife blade and awl from a P4; (More Pics Here)
• The PS has been equipped with a file and narrow screwdriver from an E4
• The CS has swapped its blade for small scissors. The small scissors do not impress, and I'd rather find something else to put here. Micra tools might prove useful

Until next time
-Tom

[T14]

And 16 seconds of youtube stupidity regarding the ES